I suspect it is called life because some of the observed patterns looks a lil bit like something you would see while peering at a petri dish on a microscope (if

I suspect it is called life because some of the observed patterns looks a lil bit like something you would see while peering at a petri dish on a microscope (if you squint? :-). Perhaps it is implied that with the right rules you would be able to generate "the real thing".